Migrate from Aderant Expert Sierra to Nutshell

Aderant clients map directly to Nutshell Companies. Client name becomes the Company name field. Client addresses and contact information map to the Company address and phone fields. Primary billing contact within the client record can be designated as the primary Company contact.

Aderant client contacts (attorney, paralegal, billing contact) merge into Nutshell Person records linked to the Company. The primary contact role is stored as a Person custom field. Multiple contacts per Aderant client become multiple Nutshell Person records under one Company.

Aderant matters translate to Nutshell Deals because both represent business relationships or cases. Matter number maps to a custom Deal field. Practice area or matter type maps to a custom picklist field on the Deal. Matter status maps to a Deal custom field rather than Nutshell's standard stage pipeline.

Aderant matters that represent prospective rather than active engagements can route to Nutshell Leads. Matters marked as 'Potential' or 'Inquiry' in Aderant become Leads with the matter description as the Lead name. Active and closed matters route to Deals instead.

Aderant time entries do not map to any native Nutshell object. Time entries are stored as Notes attached to the corresponding Deal, preserving attorney name, date, hours, and description. A custom field Total_Hours__c on the Deal aggregates hours for reporting.

Aderant invoices have no equivalent in Nutshell's sales CRM model. Invoice data is preserved as Notes on the Deal and in custom fields including Original_Balance__c and Last_Payment_Date__c for reference. Firms needing billing must use a separate accounting tool or rebuild invoicing using Nutshell integrations.

Aderant trust accounts track client funds held in escrow — a legal-specific construct with no Nutshell equivalent. Trust balance and account status are stored as custom fields on the Deal for audit reference only. Actual trust accounting requires a dedicated legal PMS.

Aderant user-defined fields on Client records create corresponding custom fields on Nutshell Company records. Field types (text, number, date, picklist) are matched as closely as possible. Multi-select picklists in Aderant become comma-separated text in Nutshell. Your team should review required field settings after migration.

Aderant custom fields on Matter records create custom fields on Nutshell Deal records. Matter-specific fields like practice group, court venue, or opposing counsel map to Deal custom fields with appropriate naming. Required fields in Aderant may be optional in Nutshell unless enforced by your workflow.

Aderant users (attorneys, paralegals, billing staff) map to Nutshell Users by email address match. Unmatched users are flagged before migration. Active Aderant users who need CRM access must have Nutshell accounts created; inactive users become Person records instead of Users.

Aderant activity logs (calls, meetings, notes logged against matters) map to Nutshell Activities on the corresponding Deal. Activity timestamps and descriptions are preserved. The attorney who logged the activity becomes the Activity owner in Nutshell. Your team can review activity history on each Deal after migration.